Algeria

ALGIERS, Feb 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The trial over the murder of a French mountaineer opens in Algeria this week, more than six years after he was beheaded by Daesh group-linked militants during a hiking trip.

Herve Gourdel, 55, was abducted on Sept 21, 2014 while hiking in Djurdjura National Park, whose dense forests, gorges and picturesque lakes are a draw for hikers but which has long been a sanctuary for militants.

Three days after he disappeared, gunmen from militant group Jund al-Khilafa published a video of his execution-style killing.

AIN DEFLA, Algeria (Reuters) - Algerian soldiers fired high-calibre rounds into a scrubby hillside of the Ain Defla mountains last week, part of an operation against the persistent threat of Islamist militants after they launched a fresh attack last month.

They stalked in the rain between pine trees along muddy tracks, rifles raised, before dropping into a crouch, many of them too young to remember the 1990s jihadist insurgency that killed 200,000 Algerians.

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algeria launched its coronavirus vaccination campaign Saturday in the city where the country’s first COVID-19 case was confirmed in March.

The North African nation is using Russia’s Sputnik-V vaccine, and a 65-year-old retiree received the first shot at a hospital in Blida, a city about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of the capital, Algiers. Health authorities were on hand for the event.

“All measures have been taken to ensure a good rollout of the vaccination campaign on the national territory,” Health Minister Abderrahmane Benbouzid said.

28 Jan 2021; MEMO: Algeria has called for ending what it terms a "historical injustice" against Africa in the United Nations (UN) Security Council, by granting the continent two permanent seats.

12 Jan 2021; MEMO: Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, returned to Germany on Sunday to complete his treatment for COVID-19.

08 Jan 2021; MEMO: A high-level US delegation arrived in Algeria on Wednesday to discuss bilateral cooperation, the Western Sahara file and the situation in Libya and the Sahel.

The delegation includes Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, David Schenker, and the Commander of the US Air Force in Europe and Africa, General Jeffrey Harrigian.

05 Jan 2021; MEMO: An Algerian court yesterday sentenced former Prime Minister in ousted President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's government, Ahmed Ouyahia, to seven years in prison on corruption charges.

Local media reported that the Sidi M'hamed court in the capital Algiers also sentenced the former ministers of tourism and transport, Ammar Ghoul and Abdelghani Zaalan, to three years in jail in the same case.

ALGIERS, Jan 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Algeria’s president signed the country’s new constitution into law, his office said, after the document was approved in a November referendum on record low turnout as its leader received treatment abroad for Covid-19.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who returned to Algeria this week after two months in Germany, had promoted the new constitution as the “cornerstone of the new Algeria”, as he sought to turn the page on the long-running Hirak mass protest movement.

01 Jan 2021; MEMO: An appeal court in Algeria on Thursday sentenced the alleged daughter of ousted President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to 12 years in prison after she was convicted in corruption cases.

The Appeal Court of Tipaza fined Zoulikha Nachinache, known as Maya, six million Algerian dinars, and ruled to confiscate all of her real estate.

30 Dec 2020; MEMO: President Abdelmadjid Tebboune returned to Algeria on Tuesday after two months in a German hospital being treated for COVID-19 during a period of political and economic crisis, reports Reuters.

State television showed him at a military airport outside Algiers sitting in an armchair and wearing a suit after his arrival.